have a W510 on order, but considering MacBook Pro -- looking for feedback from Lenovo owners

As I posted here, I'm most strongly considering a W510 and MacBook Pro 15" for school. I've got a W510 on order, but am still considering getting the MPB instead, as my estimated ship date isn't for awhile. I was originally set on the W510, but my school store has the MPB on display and playing around with it has gotten me to more strongly consider the MBP. (That, and there might be one or two programs I'll be using in school, like Final Cut, that I couldn't run on the W510, but probably not a big deal since I can use the Macs on campus if I need to.)

Now, considering that there are no W510's on display that I know of and I can't try it out without paying a restocking fee, I'm looking for some feedback from those who have the W510 (and maybe even some who have also tried the MPB to compare) to help alleviate some of my concerns. I'm sorry for posting some of these questions in two places, but I figure I might get more feedback from those who have the W510 if I post in this section (or maybe I'm just looking for some support from PC folks who will convince me to stick with a PC and avoid going over to the "other side." ):

Weight: "Heavy" seems to be a common adjective used to describe the W510. However, some reviews I've seen put it at 6 lbs. Others say 7 lbs. Which is it with the standard 9-cell battery and non-multitouch FHD screen? Is the 7 lbs. just when you factor in the power brick? The thing is, the MBP 15" weighs 5.6 lbs. and feels light enough, so if the W510 is really only 6 lbs., then that doesn't seem like a huge difference. Weight is probably my biggest concern. I'm used to having a desktop computer, so I don't know what my habits will be in terms of how often I'll want to take it to classes/library. But do you think if I get the W510 I'll find it to be too heavy and won't want to carry it around anywhere?

Touchpad: The touchpad on the MPB is pretty sweet (at least on the new 2010 models) and I know MacBooks are supposed to have the best touchpads. I'm glad to see that W510 touchpad supports multitouch gestures, but can anyone comment on the quality/feel of the W510 touchpad, particularly if you've had a chance to try the MacBook's as well? Is the Lenovo's at least pretty good or does it just suck compared to the MBP's? For instance, I liked how you can do a two-finger scroll on the MacBook. Does that work well on the W510? Apparently, inertial scrolling is done via software on the Mac, so I also wonder, can that be done somehow on the W510?

Keyboard: I'm used to typing on an ergonomic Microsoft split-keyboard on my desktop, so I know I'm not going to like any laptop keyboard by comparison. But for convenience, I'd rather not have to take an external keyboard with me to school. I've seen rather varying opinions on the W510 keyboard. Some say ThinkPad keyboards are the best you can get, others say the latest generation of Lenovo keyboards have issues. What should I believe? I didn't used to like MacBook keyboards, but I will say the spaced out keyboard I tried on the MBP seemed pretty nice when I was playing around with it at the school store.

Noise: I wasn't able to run any demanding programs on the MBP in the store to see if the fans spin up and it gets noisy. However, I have read a few comments about some noise on the W510. Is it loud? If it's just a constant white noise, I think I'll be OK with that (though of course would prefer as silent as possible, but I guess I'm spoiled from my desktop PC with a quiet Antec Solo case), but I want to make sure it doesn't have any annoying sounds or anything that I should be aware of, as some noises can drive me crazy!

Screen: Is there any reason to be concerned about inaccurate colors on the FHD wide-gamut screen? I know that was a hot topic when wide gamut LCDs first starting coming out, but am I correct that if most of my programs support color profiles (which I'm sure Photoshop and Windows 7 do), then I shouldn't have any issues? And is the W510 screen a lot better than the MBP screen? I guess my other concern would be with the tiny font on the W510 FHD screen. I know you can scale up the DPI in Windows 7, but I've heard that can result in slightly blurry type. Any comments on that? If you zoom in on text with the pinch feature on the touchpad, does that work well too if you need to increase the font size?

Battery life: I am seeing varying opinions on this one too. Some say 4+ hours with the regular 9-cell, which isn't too bad. Can anyone who does a fair amount of Photoshop work and/or video editing comment on what battery life they're getting? Again, I'm not sure how much I'll be carrying around, but it'll be nice not to have to carry the brick around as well if I do. I know MacBook Pro claims up to 9 hours, but I've heard with programs like Photoshop running and the GPU in use, even MBP's battery life goes down quite a bit.

Warranty: People say Apple has the best support in the industry, but I've heard Lenovo is good. What I do like is the option for accidental damage and next-day service. However, what have your experiences been with Lenovo support if your laptop needs service? If you have next-day service plan and they're out of a part or can't fix it right away, do you just get stuck without a laptop for awhile or what happens?

Lastly, though I went for the non-multitouch FHD screen and got a pretty good deal from Lenovo with the educational discount, I noticed some sites are selling pre-configured models with similar specs and the multitouch FHD screen for around the same price. I guess the big difference is it only comes with a standard warranty if I buy it from the other stores, so I'd have to pay more to get the next-day with accidental damage upgrade from Lenovo. But do you think non-multitouch is the best, as I've heard multi-touch degrades the picture a bit and I want the best screen for photographic work? Are they making many apps for touch in Windows 7 or is it not all that useful? I am intrigued by the apps that let you flip through magazines on the iPad, but I wonder if they're making anything similar for Windows 7 touch or if everyone is just developing for iPad and will ignore Windows 7.

So, what do you think? Should I stick with the W510? Is it a good choice for school or am I making a mistake?

 

These two laptops are two that I've narrowed my search down too. I'm interested in these questions as well.

 

As a student myself using the W500 for school, i'll say go for the Macbookpro15. Simply because, a macbook has a excellent battery life and also its more compact,lighter,slimmer. However, if you are a person who is quite rugged and bang things around and drops things, go for the W510. Its really reliable and the customer service personally better than apple over here in singapore. Performance wise it depends on what you do. If you need to do alot of CAD or graphic/cpu intensive go for the W510. The MBP15 is also powerful but not quite as powerful W510.

 

MBP gets hot if you stress it too much, since the chassis acts as a heat sink.

These two machines are very different, one is workstation orientated (weight depends on what battery and whether the 135 w power adapter is taken into account).

If you need GPU performance i advise you get the DIY Vidock and install a ATI 5850 graphics card (desktop version). For normal school use just get a T410 or a X201, when you get home play games just plug the Vidock into the ExpressCard slot.

 

Can't comment on the specific models -- I have a T400 and own a couple of Macs at home -- but I can comment on support. Mac support is excellent particularly if you have a store near you. I don't think Lenovo support is as good. Whichever you decide on, I strongly recommend getting a three year warranty out of the gate. Lenovo also offers accident protection, which you must buy at the time you get your product. I would go with three years Applecare. If you purchase from Best Buy I believe you can get accident protection for your MBP, but I don't think Apple sells it themselves.

 

I understand the weight can vary, but it would really help if someone can post the weight of their W510 w/ FHD (non-multitouch) and 9-cell (regular, not slice) battery (and NOT including the power brick), as some of the reviews I've read aren't careful to specify what configuration they have when they give the weight.

Interesting. I didn't know such a thing even existed. I wonder if it would work on the MBP 17", which as ExpressCard (15" doesn't, unfortunately, which is another minor disadvantage of the MPB vs. the W510). In any case, I think I'd prefer to get a laptop that required as few extras as possible so I can just take it to school without needing much else to go with it. Though, it's got me wondering if I could even get away with an X201 Tablet.

I'm not really into gaming. My only concern with the graphics card would be if I really get into video editing, as I understand that some video editing programs can take advantage of the GPU. The Quadro FX 880M isn't officially supported (at least not yet) in the new Premiere Pro CS5, but I've read that people have successfully gotten any graphics card with 1 GB RAM to take full advantage of CS5's new acceleration features by simply adding a line to the .ini file. Now, I guess CS5 might run fine on MPB too and maybe I'm making too much of some extra acceleration features that I might not even use.

It seems the biggest advantage of the W510 may be the FHD screen. I've heard great things about it, but I haven't heard any comparisons to the high res. screen that's available for the MBP.

 

Go to notebookcheck and check out the reviews. Personally, the FHD display seems better for me (Wide Gamut) but short of having them side by side, thats the closest comparison i've found anywhere.

 

Based on the stated use from the other thread (photo & video editing), just about any computer with a Core i_ processor will meet most of your needs.

How much note taking do you expect to do? How many interviews? How useful will a computer be while you're away from home?

The more you're away from home, the more of a premium you'll place on portability and battery life. If you're chewing through large, raw video files then encoding them, the 8-thread capability of the quad-core i7 in the W510 may provide some noticeable performance boosts, particularly if you get a lot of RAM w/ Win 7-64. Then you have to balance longer time to edit/encode vs. convenience of doing it in a library or coffee shop.

I'm intensely jealous of students who have the opportunity to use tablet PCs. To me, they are a game-changing leap forward because you can annotate e-copies of books & lecture notes, while keeping your entire library on the PC. If you plan to interview people w/o a camera or report on an event, writing on a tablet offers compelling advantages. The X201 Tablet is a great machine. If you watch the Outlet, you can get the UltraBase for a great price, giving you plenty of desktop convenience at home. Here are some student-related threads from the sister Tablet site:
Was a tablet a necessity? - Tablet PC Forums, Discussion and Support
How do you use your tablet for notes? - Tablet PC Forums, Discussion and Support
Thinking of buying a tablet for school... - Tablet PC Forums, Discussion and Support

Nothing I saw in your thread triggered the key W510 advantages:
CAD file operations.
Solid modeling.
Gaming.
Large data base queries and sorting.
Other CPU or GPU-intense tasks.

If you're not going to consider a tablet, the Mac looks like a better solution because it offers better portability & battery life.

 

I have a W510 FHD, my wife has a macbook pro. The two are completely different machines and its a bit hard to compare them.

The main thing about W510 is the fact that it uses quad core CPU, so if you do things that require processing power, W510 would be alot better. The GPU on the W510 and new MPB are exactly the same (FX 880 uses same chip as 330M with different drivers). Both heat up under stress, W510 gets really hot when both CPU and GPU are stressed, and in both computers the bottoms get unconfortably hot if used under stress for a while.

Screen I prefer W510 wide gamut FHD panel. The resolution on 1440x900 MBP is pathetic and I prefer more saturated colors on wider gamut screen. The low resolution alone is the reason I would never buy the 15" MBP. This, however, has recently changed with introduction of their higher res screens which I havent gotten a chance to check out yet. Also after using a wide gamut panel, there is no way I will ever go back to regular one. Your mileage may vary, alot of people dont like the very saturated colors of wide gamut screens.

Battery power wise, MBP is a ton better, which is probably due to MacOS power management.

I feel that if you just need a laptop for general use and if you dont mind Apple's OS, MBP is a way to go for school. But if you need to use software that is available only for PC and need quad core processing power (my case), the W510 is the way to go. I've had my thinkpad for 3 months already and I really want a high res 15" MBP for home use. (too bad it is way expensive).

Also consider the price, 15" MBP with the config I want costs about $2100, while I picked up my W510 for $1530.

 

Can you comment on battery life doing menial tasks such as word processing and light web browsing?

 

3.5 hours with 9 cell.

 

Probably the W510 is better if you want to run Linux.

 

Thanks. Don't really intend on running Linux at this point though.

 

Why is W510 better for database queries/searching? Database queries could be used as part of investigative journalism work, so I may take a computer class or two involving databases, but I imagine MBP can still do a decent job?

One thing I did notice in a FAQ on one journalism school's site that recommends everyone get a Mac (a lot of journalism schools seem to say that, and I guess a lot of schools in general now) is that a PC might be better for "computer-assisted reporting" (which, I guess involves database work), but they didn't explain why that was.

I'm aware of certain Mac OS-only programs like Final Cut Pro and Aperture, but are there any Windows-only programs I should know about (or ones that won't work well in Windows 7 virtual/dual boot mode)? Why do engineers and the like usually need PCs? Is it because they can get faster processors?

Also, as far as battery life on MBP, it's apparently quite a bit less than Apple claims (though, still at least an hour or two more than W510):
Core i7 MacBook Pro Battery Life Not Close to 8-9 Hours? | Notebooks.com
I guess it depends a lot on how often you're running programs that trigger the dedicated GPU.

 

If you plan on using Windows a lot aswell I would go with the W510. A MBP is really a nice piece of hardware but a main feature is their own operating system. As soon as you work also on Windows (or you simply have to) you will experience less battery time, less power and a louder system because the a MBP is designed for OSX not Windows.

My experience with Apple and Lenovo warranty so far has been equally satisfying. Even though I have the slight feeling that both are adapting their repair policies (eg. broken USB ports don't get replaced, or Apples "water detection"). After all it depends on the warranty type and your location. I don't know if Apple has something similar to ThinkPlus warranty (which I recommend for someone buying a 1x00€/$ notebook).

For me weight has never been an issue - I rather carry 1kg more but have my FHD screen and 4 Cores everywhere with me.

Noise levels with my W510 are very good and with TPFanControl you can silence the machine for pure office work, internet research, etc.

To make a long story short:

Unless you really prefer MacOSX and design over hardware/price I would go with the W510. For me the combination of Linux/Windows is superior to OSX. So far I have yet to discover a real flaw in my W510 - the only current issue is that a lot of software is still optimized for single/dual core CPUs so the 720QM is not the biggest step from the P8700 I used to have.